


Loose of Games

by WarnerHedgehog



Series: A Showbiz Conspiracy. [4]
Category: Richard Osman's House of Games
Genre: BBC, Comedy, Game Shows, Gen, Imps - Freeform, Television, quiz
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-07
Updated: 2020-03-07
Packaged: 2021-03-01 02:41:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23057887
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WarnerHedgehog/pseuds/WarnerHedgehog
Summary: Disaster strikes a popular game show.
Series: A Showbiz Conspiracy. [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/591106





	Loose of Games

Richard pushed his button and looked at the screen. "The next round is Distinctly Average. This is a pairs game and the person in last place gets to choose their partner." He directed his gaze to look at Rob Beckett, "Seeing as that's you Rob, you get to choose."  
"Alright Rich, I know I'm last. You don't have to sound so happy about it." Replied the comedian with a cheeky grin.  
"Rob, you know I'm just trying to motivate you, to spur you on."  
Rob looked at the panel before saying, "Well, Tarby's been on top form so far ain't she?, I reckon I'd be daft not to."  
The host nodded, "Ok then, Liza and Sian, if you'd kindly swap places."  
The two female panel members stood up to change seats and in doing do, Liza's arm fell off. After a couple of seconds, the producer ran on yelling "Cut, cut cut!"  
Liza looked down at her fallen appendage, more in surprise than horror, "Blimey, would you look at that? Well that's something you don't see every day, is it?" She said in jovial tones.  
As various show runners hurriedly came onto set, Richard stood up and went over to the now armless contestant. "You alright Dave?"  
Liza suddenly stood bolt upright, as if at attention. A small hatch on the side of her head opened and a small purple imp in a Hawaiian shirt peeked out. "Yeah I'm good Rich. What the bloody hell just happened?"  
Erica the Producer picked up the arm and looked at it carefully, "Look at this, the bolts are corroded to hell." She pointed at what should have attached the arm. "Everyone go into park and open up. We need to check your mechs out."  
Sian was already there, but very quickly Rob and Nigel followed suit. They all opened up their hatches and show runners helped them out of the dodgy synths. Tarquin, the imp that piloted Rob was carried over to Erica who was still poking the knackered body part. "Let's 'ave a butcher's." He said. Erica held the arm up and Tarquin gave it a serious examination, "These bolts are seriously cheap and nasty. No wonder they're like this."  
After Sian had been vacated by her imp, a crew member did a quick pull on one of her arms and it came free with little resistance. Close inspection revealed a nest of Brucie's Ally Mites, a nasty little bug that thrived on cheap aluminium alloys, which is exactly what the bolts in Liza's arm seemed to be made of. It wasnt long before they found that the rest of the shows synth were similarly infested and similarly cheaply made.   
Richard was understandably incensed, "All these synths are imp death traps!" He complained, "Where on Earth did we get these things from?"  
This was the main question asked at a hastily convened emergency production meeting. It transpired that the decision of upper management to put the same bugetry ethos, namely "no expense spent", behind the prizes into the synth selection process turned out to be a bad idea. They had somewhat unwisely turned to newcomers to the synth market, Lyons-based French outfit Méchante Mécanique. Méchante were cheap. Too cheap. To say that their production values were basic was to insult the word basic. The production team were finding out to their cost that what they had bought were some of the crappiest synths ever made, and Méchante Mécanique were a bunch of absolute cowboys. To make matters worse, all the contracts and important legal documentation were worth less than a used sweet wrapper, as just after delivery, Méchante Mécanique had packed up operations and seemingly vanished off the face of the Earth.  
The team authorized a new set of synths to be ordered from TechsMechs and the budget for contestants to be considerably increased, but it would take time. Thankfully, the BBC were already setting up, at the same studio, a new celebrity quiz show called 'It Ain't Rocket Science' to be hosted by the real Sandi Toksvig and they had already received a batch of Mk3 synths made by top flight company Orokana, so for now, the show could go on.


End file.
